Clay - Page 1 of 2

“John 9:6; When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, ...”

Here we have an interesting verse. Most all have heard the story of Jesus healing the blind man. But why did Jesus heal this man in the manner? We may only surmise. We do see in this Jesus “repaired” the man. I mentioned this word in another of my articles as meaning “perfect” or “complete.”

God repairs lives and makes them “perfect” which, as I said earlier, is not perfect in the common vernacular, but “complete” in the eyes of God. I would add here another word, “finished.”

This blind man was not a finished product, but a usable one before and after his healing, as the storyline indicates.

I would suggest reading this chapter again as it is full of the things of Christ and His work in an unbelieving world. It has healing, which we mentioned, family interaction, religion, intrigue, underhanded activity and all the other things that make up a good drama. But let’s look at a of couple things, then you can lift out your own comparatives to ponder.

“Genesis 2:7; And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

“Job 33:6; Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay.”

Here we have that “vernacular” mentioned above. Some folks might not see that “clay” and “dust” are the same, but in scriptural sense and the pottery world, they are. Word meanings do change over time, but truth remains. Clay is made from the “dust” of the earth.

When we look at the Hebrew words used in these two verses, we find “dust” (aphar) and “clay” (chomer) have common base meanings. What the meanings suggest, and what science agrees with, is that the one, dust, is basically the same as the other, clay, except for the absence of water, at least that is how I read it.

We see in the Genesis 2:6, that a “ ... mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” It seems to mean that the ground was wet, damp. Then “... God formed man of the dust of the ground ... “ which could very well mean wet ground, clay.

But God could have taken the “dust” and added “spittle,” as did Jesus. Or He could have added water from the oceans, which He had made earlier, to the dust to form man. However He did it, we are not told. But the end result was “clay.” Job 33:6 says it was clay and as does Isaiah 49:9 and 64:8.

Jesus had taken the dry ground and wet it with spit, daubed the man’s eyes with the clay that He made and repaired him.

Next we look at a word not often understood in spiritual meaning, “sincere.” It is found only two times in the Bible, Philippians 1:10 and 2nd Peter 2:2 ... next time.